You’ll recall I went to The Middle Kingdom over my summer break. This is the first of a couple of posts on how I spent my summer, not relaxing, but wandering around Beijing with two middle aged sisters.
I don’t care what you say. For some Beijing is an ancient city. The centre of oriental intrigue and mystery that stretches millennia in to the past. The Forbidden City and quaint alleyways or Hutong, the ancient alleyways that run for blocks behind well lit main streets.
For others it’s all about the boom. The building, the burgeoning Middle Class, newly found affluence. Indigenous Bejingers, often with a wry smile, will make out that the “Crane” is China’s national bird. The crane they refer to of course are those that dominate the skyline, my own hotel room view spoiled by such a rusting yellow creature employed in the construction of a new Waldorf Astoria hotel.
For others still Beijing and China is about the human rights, or the lack thereof. Tienanmen square and Tibet. Somehow Google gets thrown in there as well.
Beijing is all these things. And more. But there is no argument in my mind as to what Beijing is the most.
Beijing is food.
Donghuamen Night Market
Literally 500m down the road from the Beijing Novotel Peace on Wangfujing Street is the Donghuamen Night Market. Existing in one form or another in the area around Wangfujing since about 1984 the night market brings together vendors selling upwards of 60 dishes from around China (and in one case Dokbukki and “Korean Kimbab”).
Travellers to China, upon their return, often regale their friends with sordid stories of deep fried scorpions and seahorse and the intestinal fortitude required to consume these “delicacies”. And there is some of this on offer at Donghuamen. Apart from the initial psychological hurdle these dishes – usually served on a stick – are about as tasty as anything else served on a stick. Indeed the scorpion I had tasted more of the unclean beef tallow it was fried in than anything else.
Scorpion, Starfish and Seahorse ready to be consumed.
There were other insect-ual delicacies on hand, with one vendor helpfully labelling his wares in English as if to dare the Australian backpackers in front of me to try their luck and show how manly they were. While the silkworm larvae are essentially big (giant) versions of Korea’s own Beondegi (번데기), in the picture below I’m betting the only thing labelled in Chinese is the most deadly thing there!
I’m thinking it is pressed cakes of offal, on a stick. Kudos to anyone who can translate in the comments.
On offer elsewhere – some of the freshest vegetable and pork stir-fry you will ever find:
And more whole animals – too small to be duck, I am unsure as to these birds providence, I’m thinking pigeon, I’m hoping farmed pigeon, as Beijing has a suspicious lack of pigeons on its streets and in the air. With that suspicion in mind I didn’t try these.
And a selection of some of the other grilled goodies on display and available at Donghuamen:
Whole Baby Shark
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A few items not available on-a-stick, whole freshwater crab, and stuffed Oysters
And what might be described (above) as an a la carte Chinese Budaechigae – you decide what goes in.
Octopus
Squid legs (arms?)
Steering away from the meat I was intrigued by some of the fruity goodness on offer. In stark contrast to the crisp, smoky flavoured meats were a selection of fruits and deserts that made my mouth and the mouths f my companions water.
Just what the doctor ordered after multiple sticks of greasy lamb, a cherry and mangostine fruit salad bathed in a sugary pineapple juice – with an umbrella on top! You’d be forgiven for thinking that everything in China comes “on a sticK’. Here we have a selection of whole fruit, skewered and coated in a sweet honey glaze; Kiwi, Kiwi and pineapple, pineapple, mangostine, plum…. The thick crust on the table underneath the fruit being a build up of the sugar glaze dripping from these delicious deserts.
Donghuamen is probably a good way for those who don’t have the strongest stomachs (my Mum and Aunt accompanied me to Donghuamen and only partook in the fruit) to experience “Street food” and the exotic delicacies on offer are not all that ’strange’ or gag inducing. Westerners will often comment about the smell of Asian cuisine being prepared and if you or anyone travelling with you to Beijing fall into that category, Donghuamen is not much of an assault on the olfactory senses.
Rather the delicious aroma of grilling meat fills the air supplemented by spices and sauces. Like so much in China it is government regulated and just as clean as any stall in Gangnam or Jeongno where you would pound down Soondae with lashings of Dokbukki after a few too many beers at a Noraebang
(I can personally recommend the cake with pig inside – a glutinous pita with pork mice, vegetables with spoonfuls of soy sauce!)
Vendors are polite, if not competitive, prices are stated in menus above each stall and if you can translate the hilarious Chinglish a cheap gastronomic adventure awaits at Donghuamen.
